The invention relates to umbrellas.
A disadvantage with conventional umbrellas is that when the user reaches his destination, the wet umbrella may prove an inconvenience. This problem arises particularly when the user reaches a public place such as a restaurant or office which does not have an umbrella stand so that the rainwater drips onto the floor, or when the user enters a vehicle and the rainwater drips onto the floor of the vehicle or onto the clothes of the user or other occupants of the vehicle.
It has been proposed to provide a drip cup adjacent the tip of an umbrella to collect rainwater dripping down. Drip cups are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 976,032 (J. T. Bluff), 1,068,566 (F. H. Chavarria), 1,110,215 (C. J. Madonna), 1,373,642 (W. E. Airey and J. Pomfret), 2,427,188 (A. Bossart), 3,809,107 (Liu) and 4,703,768 (Lee), and also in Italian Pat. No. 309412 (Romagnoli) and Australian Pat. No. 218,729 (Magini). Drip cups, however, suffer from certain disadvantages. One disadvantage is that when the umbrella is folded it is not always possible to maintain the umbrella precisely vertically and therefore not all the rainwater on the fabric of the umbrella will drip down into the drain cup. One situation in which the folded umbrella is not held vertically arises when the umbrella is folded on entering a building, but the user walks some distance through the building before reaching his final destination. As the user walks along through the building the folded umbrella undergoes oscillatory motion, spraying rainwater onto the floor of the building. Another situation in which the umbrella is not held vertically arises when the user enters a vehicle. The limited space available in the vehicle and the motion of the vehicle prevent the folded umbrella being held upright. Also, the wet umbrella fabric wets the clothes of the user or other nearby persons. Another disadvantage with drain cups is that the rainwater which does collect in the drain cup may be accidentally spilled from the drain cup before an opportunity arises to empty the drain cup.
It has also been proposed to provided an umbrella with a drain cup and an umbrella cover which can be contracted towards the drain cup when the frame and fabric of the umbrella are to be opened out for use and which can be extended along the umbrella when the frame is collapsed and the fabric is folded after use so as to guide rainwater to the drain cup. U.S. Pat. No. 337,145 (R. E. Ghezzi) discloses an umbrella provided with a cover which can be contracted or extended, and consists of a telescopic casing made from a series of tubes which can be telescoped into one another. The telescopic casing proposed in the Ghezzi patent would solve the above described problems which arise with drain cups but the telescopic casing is impracticable for a number of reasons. Firstly, immediately after use of the umbrella, with the umbrella frame collapsed and the umbrella fabric in an unfolded state and swollen by moisture, considerable friction would be encountered in moving the telescopic casing to the extended position. As a result of the friction it would take an appreciable time for the user to extend the cover, and if the user were to extend the cover in preparation for entering a vehicle, the user would become wet during the time taken. A similar problem would arise in alighting from a vehicle. Furthermore, in folding the fabric before extending the telescopic casing and in extending the telescopic cover, after gripping the movable end of the telescopic casing, the user's hand would come into contact with the fabric of the umbrella, the user's hand becoming wet in the course of these operations, which is not desirable in certain circumstances such as for example when the user is bearing or is about to handle documents. Also, as the telescopic casing is extended along the umbrella, the leading edge of the telescopic casing would push rainwater ahead of it along the fabric of the umbrella spraying rainwater instead of trapping it. In addition, as a result of the friction the user would need to grip the umbrella very firmly in both hands in order to extend the telescopic casing, and this firm gripping in both hands would generally require the user to hold the umbrella horizontally thereby spraying rainwater. Finally, extending the telescopic casing would cause considerable wear and tear to the fabric of the umbrella which would rapidly lose its waterproof properites. A second disadvantage with the telescopic casing is that rainwater may leak out of the extended casing through the joints between the telescopic sections.
An object of the present invention is to provide an umbrella with an improved and more practical retractable cover.